The present invention pertains to a vehicle door with a door casing as well as to a process for manufacturing such a vehicle door.
In prior-art vehicle doors, the door casing is formed, on its side facing the interior space of the vehicle, by a massive inside door panel of a shell-like design, which is closed toward the outside of the vehicle door by an outside door shell, which is connected to the inside door panel, e.g., by beading and bonding. The door components located inside the door, such as the power window motor, the side impact protection support, lines and linkages for the lock and its connection to the door handle, etc., are usually accessible from the inside of the vehicle through corresponding openings of the inside door panel. These openings are covered by a supporting inside door lining, which comprises in turn structural parts such as the arm rest, the door closer handle or the bracket for the inner activation of the door, and must therefore be designed as a rigid support part.
The drawback of such prior-art doors is, among other things, that the various openings present in the inside door panel must be sealed by means of additional sealing strips in a relatively complicated manner in order to prevent water entering the door casing via, e.g., the window gap in case of heavy rain from also entering the interior space of the vehicle.
A lightweight component with excellent strength properties, which can also be used in motor vehicles and comprises a shell-like base body, in the interior space of which reinforcing ribs consisting of plastic molded integrally are provided, has been known from EP 0 370 342. The reinforcing ribs are connected to the base body at discrete connection points via openings in the base body, through which the plastic extends and projects over the surfaces of the openings.
The basic object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle door in which moisture is prevented with certainty and in a simple manner from entering the interior space of the vehicle from the door casing. Another object of the present invention is to disclose a process for manufacturing such a vehicle door.
The present invention is based essentially on the idea of connecting the inside door panel from its side facing the outer shell to a plastic support pail which is provided with fastening elements which support the door components to be arranged in the door casing and of fastening the structural elements protruding into the interior space of the vehicle to the inside door panel. The assembly and disassembly of the door components located in the interior space of the door casing is performed, unlike in prior-art vehicle doors, from the outside of the door (e.g., through an outside door panel that can be pulled up).
In such a vehicle door, in which the components located in the door casing are accessible from the outside, the openings in the inside door panel can be kept small and are used essentially only to fasten the structural elements protruding into the interior space of the vehicle. These openings can be sealed against moisture in a simple manner.
Another essential advantage of the vehicle door according to the present invention is that due to the use of the plastic support part, the thickness of the inside door panel can be selected to be substantially smaller than in prior-art shell-type doors, because corresponding critical areas of the inside panel can be reinforced by plastic during the injection molding process.
The door structure according to the present invention can be embodied in a simple manner by arranging the plastic support part, after preassembly of the plastic structural parts on the inside panel, on the shell-like inside panel, which is, e.g., a deep-drawn panel, by injection molding together with the fastening elements for the door components. The support part is connected to the inside panel at discrete connection points via openings in the inside panel, through which the plastic extends and projects over the surfaces of the openings.
To obtain the most lightweight vehicle door possible with good strength properties, it proved to be advantageous for the plastic support part to be provided, at least in some areas, with reinforcing ribs arranged in a honeycomb pattern, similarly to what is disclosed in EP 0 370 342 A2, which was mentioned at the beginning.
Since all the structural elements protruding into the interior space of the vehicle are fixed to the inside door panel rather than to the inside door lining, a conventional inside door lining can either be done away with altogether or it is sufficient for aesthetic reasons to use a non-self-supporting facing for covering the fastening openings for the plastic support part or for the arm rest, the door closer handle, etc.
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its uses, reference is made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated.